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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 84 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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89 out of 92 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Decent camera.. SD300 and SD500 are better"
Pros: nice features, small compact
Cons: Too many pixels for a sensor this small.. see below
Summary: This is a decent ultracompact camera. However, it has the worst image quality of Canon's entire SD line. The SD400 is a 5 megapixel camera and 5 million pixels is way too much for the small CCD sensor that this camera uses. This is the prime reason for the noisy pictures this camera creates. Most people say they don't need the 7.2 megapixels that the Sd400's big brother the SD500 has. This is true, but the SD500 is a much better choice for other reasons. Mainly the larger sensor that it uses. The SD500's larger sensor means that more light is able to get into the lens which in turn creates noticeably nicer and clearer photographs with much less digital noise. The SD500's flash has a 50% longer range than the SD400 (16ft vs 11ft) this is very important for party shots or properly lighting indoor shots. The 14% longer battery life of the SD500 is also another nice advantage. In my opinion the extra $100 you spend on the SD500 is well worth it for significantly better photos, a much stronger flash and longer battery life. If budget is a concern, then I would recommend the SD300 which is a step down from the SD400. The SD300 uses the same smaller CCD sensor as the SD400, but it has 4 megapixels instead of 5. Having 4 million pixels instead of 5 million pixels crammed into a sensor this small will definitlely create sharper images with less noise and unless you are printing pictures larger than 8x10's, 4 megapixels is plenty big.
- 4 replies to this review
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The statement "The SD500's larger sensor means that more light is able to get into the lens which in turn creates noticeably nicer and clearer photographs with much less digital noise" is simply false. The amount of light collected by an optical system is determined purely by the size of the lens. In fact, spreading the light around on a larger sensor will reduce the amount of light per unit area.
As an owner of the SD400, I have been consistently impressed with the quality of the camera and its images. I specifically purchased the SD400 instead of the SD500 to get a high performance snapshot camera in as small of a package as possible. The increased bulkiness of the SD500 wasn't worth it to me, and my SD400 hasn't disappointed me. -
Did you actually own or test a SD400 or are you are merely talking "theoretically" in regards to "worst" image quality ?
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Hey, thanks for the review and the comparison. I was originally going to get the SD400 but now I'll probably go with the smaller brother. Besides the price, SD500 is just too bulky for my taste.
Where to buy
Canon PowerShot SD400:
$598.97
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$598.97 | Yes |
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